In 2003, the J. Paul Getty Museum acquired a collection of over 350 pieces of ancient glass, formerly owned by Erwin Oppenländer. The works on view in Molten Color are remarkable for their high quality, their chronological breadth, and the glassmaking techniques illustrated by their manufacture. The vessels are accompanied by text and videos illustrating ancient glassmaking techniques.

The Last Days of Pompeii: Decadence, Apocalypse, ResurrectionDaily through January 7, 2013Museum, Floor 2, Getty Villa

Pompeii and the other cities destroyed and paradoxically preserved by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 are usually considered the places where we can best and most directly experience the daily lives of ancient Romans. Rather than presenting these sites as windows on the past, this exhibition explores them as a modern obsession. Over the three hundred years since their discovery in the early 1700s, the Vesuvian sites have functioned as shifting mirrors of the present, inspiring foremost artists—from Piranesi, Fragonard, Ingres, and Alma-Tadema to Duchamp, Dalí, Rothko, and Warhol—to engage with contemporary concerns in diverse media. This international loan exhibition is co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art in association with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.

The Sanctuaries of Demeter and Persephone at MorgantinaDaily through January 21, 2013Museum, Floor 1, Getty Villa

A cache of votive offerings excavated from the sanctuaries of the ancient city of Morgantina is on loan from the Museo Archeologico of Aidone, Sicily. These objects, which date from 400 to 200 B.C., were given as gifts by worshippers to Demeter and her daughter Persephone, goddesses of agricultural fertility. Ranging from terracotta figures of the deities to bone hair pins and oil lamps used in nocturnal rituals, the artifacts reveal worship practices and highlight the vibrancy of local craftsmanship. Several works have been conserved by the Getty, such as a bust of Persephone, for which treatment uncovered a painted scene of dancing women on her garment.

Among the most storied works of art to survive from antiquity, the spectacular Lion Attacking a Horse was created in the era of Alexander the Great. A trophy of war in imperial Rome, then a symbol of justice in the medieval city, this image of savage animal combat was admired by Michelangelo and inspired generations of artists. On the Capitoline Hill, its presence heralded the Renaissance spirit, laying the foundation for the world’s first public art collection. The extraordinary loan of this recently conserved marble group, presented in a special installation at the Getty Villa, signals a new partnership between the J. Paul Getty Museum and the civic museums of Rome.